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Wetlands are areas where water is present at or near the surface of the soil during at least part of the year. Wetlands provide habitat for many species of plants and animals that are adapted to living in wet habitats. Wetlands form characteristic soils, absorb pollutants and excess nutrients from aquatic systems, help buffer the effects of high flows, and recharge groundwater. Data on the distribution and type of wetland play an important role in land use planning and several federal and state laws require that wetlands be considered during the planning process.

The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) was designed to assist land managers in wetland conservation efforts. The NWI is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Extent: 50 United States plus Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands

Visible Scale: The data is visible at scales from 1:144,000 to 1:1,000. An imagery layer created from this dataset is also available which you can also use to quickly draw wetlands at scales smaller than 1:144,000.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Publication Date: November 29, 2021

ArcGIS Server URL: https://landscape11.arcgis.com/arcgis/

Wetland Code - a code that identifies specific attributes of the wetland

Wetland Type - one of 8 wetland types

Area - area of the wetland in acres

System - code indicating the system and subsystem of the wetland

Class - code indicating the class and subclass of the wetland

Modifier 1, Modifier 2, Modifier 3, Modifier 4 - these four fields contain letter codes for modifiers applied to the wetland description

System Name - the name of the system (Marine, Estuarine, Riverine, Lacustrine, or Palustrine)

Subsystem Name - the name of the subsystem

Class Name - the name of the class

Subclass Name - the name of the subclass

Modifier 1 Name, Modifier 2 Name, Modifier 3 Name , Modifier 4 Name - these four fields contain names for modifiers applied to the wetland description

Popup Header - this field contains a text string that is used to create the header in the default pop-up 

System Text - this field contains a text string that is used to create the system description text in the default pop-up

Class Text - this field contains a text string that is used to create the class description text in the default pop-up

Modifier Text - this field contains a text string that is used to create the modifier description text in the default pop-up

Species Text - this field contains a text string that is used to create the species description text in the default pop-up

Codes, names, and text fields were derived from the publication Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States.

Feature layers work throughout the ArcGIS system. Generally your work flow with feature layers will begin in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro. Below are just a few of the things you can do with a feature service in Online and Pro.

ArcGIS Online

• Change the layer’s transparency and set its visibility range

• Open the layer’s attribute table and make selections and apply filters. Selections made in the map or table are reflected in the other. Center on selection allows you to zoom to features selected in the map or table and show selected records allows you to view the selected records in the table.

• Change the layer’s style and filter the data. For example, you could set a filter for System Text = 'Palustrine' to create a map of palustrine wetlands only.
  

• Add labels and set their properties

• Customize the pop-up

ArcGIS Pro

• Use as an input to geoprocessing. For example, copy features allows you to select then export portions of the data to a new feature class.

• Change the symbology and the attribute field used to symbolize the data

• Open table and make interactive selections with the map

• Modify the pop-ups

• Apply Definition Queries to create sub-sets of the layer

This layer is part of the Living Atlas of the World that provides an easy way to explore the landscape layers and many other beautiful and authoritative maps on hundreds of topics.